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man with low testosterone levels after age 40 have a higher risk of exposure of death over a four - yr period than those with normal levels of the hormone , a new study paint a picture .
It ’s not clear-cut , however , if the two are right away relate , and researchers say that it ’s potential a third unknown factor is responsible for for both lowtestosteronelevels and increased mortality .
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The subject , led by Molly Shores of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and the University of Washington , Seattle , is detailed in the current progeny ofArchives of Internal Medicine .
Wild variation
Testosterone levels can vary wildly between different men and even within individuals as a answer of malady or tenseness . However , studies have systematically shown that degree of the hormone decrease as men age .
Testosterone layer tip during a man ’s previous 20 ’s but decline soon after , lessen about 1.5 per centum per year after historic period 30 . The decline is thought to be due to eld - related changes in thetestes , where the hormone is produced , and in the encephalon .
Low levels of testosterone can cause decreased muscularity mass and bone denseness , insulin resistance , decreasedsex cause , reduced free energy , excitability and feelings of depression .
The researchers studied the relationship between testosterone level and death in a total of 858 manly veterans who were age 40 or former . player had their testosterone story see at least doubly between 1994 and 1999 . The adult male were followed for an average of 4.3 years and a level best of eight years , through 2002 .
About 19 percent ( 166 men ) had low testosterone levels ; 28 per centum ( 240 mankind ) had varying low and normal level ; and 53 percent ( 452 man ) had normal testosterone levels .
About 20 percent of the human being with normal testosterone levels give-up the ghost during the path of the study , compared with 24.6 percent of hands with varying tier and 34.9 pct of those with low levels .
human race with low testosterone levels had an 88 percentage addition inrisk of deathcompared with those who had normal point . The effect persist even after variables such as age , other illnesses and body mass index were controlled for .
Themortalityrisk for men with humiliated testosterone dropped to 68 pct after the researchers reanalyzed the data to do away with men who had died within the first year of follow - up . This was done to control for dips in testosterone levels that can occur soon after surgery , harm or critical illness .
Uncertain liaison
That the effect still stay high after excluding early destruction suggests the linkup between low testosterone and mortality is not simply due to knifelike illness , the investigator say .
However , because the current field of study is a retrospective study that relies on old medical records , it can only reason out that grim testosterone and increased mortality are linked , nothowthey are link . For that , a prospective study that follows a group of individuals over a long period of time is need .
" The gentleman’s gentleman with low testosterone did have high destruction rate , but it may be due to some other cistron that we were n’t capable to measure out , " Shores toldLiveScience .
shore also bespeak out that the veterans in her study are a unique subset of the population and that future study should seem at more diverse groups of humans .
" They were probably more medically ill than most man their age , " she said . " They all had an norm of about 5 inveterate illness . "
shore allege the outcome of her subject field are not conclusive enough for her to urge testosterone replacement therapy for aging men . what is more , the overall risks and benefits of such therapy are not yet know .
" There ’s no link between testosterone refilling and prostate cancer but the study that have been done are n’t big enough to detect if there ’s a link or not , " Shores said .
